Israel said the group is still quiet on its leadership and how deep its involvement with the Islamic State runs. Locals call the terrorists “al-Shabaab,” although the group has no known affiliation to the Somali-based terror group with the same name. But some of the insurgents received combat training with the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist rebel group active in DRC and Uganda, Israel added.

ASWJ has increasingly become more brazen in choosing targets, and its mission has become clearer. The group carried out more than 100 attacks between January and April, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). 

On March 23, the terrorists tried for a second time to seize control of Mocímboa. They set up barricades on major roads in the town and erected their black-and-white flag over the police headquarters. They captured five army and police barracks before responding forces regained control one day later. 

The group launched a similar attack days later on the district capital of Quissanga, where militants seized a police station and set up flags before security forces pushed them out. At least six security officials died in the unrest. During the raid, the insurgents released a video, where they called for the implementation of Shariah law and rejected “the wealth of this world.”

ASWJ has declared elements of the state as its main target, but civilians are also casualties in the violence. 

In April, the group killed 52 people in the village of Xitaxi in Muidumbe district after none of the young men there agreed to join the group’s ranks. Pemba-based Catholic Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa told Aid to the Church in Need that the insurgents destroyed at least five local chapels and some mosques.

In May, Mozambique’s ministries of Defense and Interior confirmed a string of attacks across seven districts, where insurgents kidnapped at least 14 people and destroyed a new hospital and several telecommunication and electricity centers.

The insurgents occupied Macomia from May 28-30, when they killed at least 19 people and released inmates from a prison before withdrawing. On June 5, Médecins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors Without Borders) withdrew from Macomia due to the attacks. The group pulled out of Mocímboa da Praia in March. 

CABO DELGADO, the northernmost region bordering Tanzania, is one of Mozambique’s poorest provinces despite its political and economic significance. The nation’s 10-year struggle for independence that ended in 1974 began in the province’s Muidumbe district. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi comes from the province, and it is a stronghold for his ruling Frelimo party. 

The city of Montepuez is also home to one of the world’s biggest known ruby deposits.

In 2010, the U.S. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. discovered significant gas reserves in the Rovuma Basin that forms the border between Mozambique and Tanzania. The country’s Afungi Peninsula in Palma district is now a hub for several energy companies, including Total and Exxon Mobil. Alex Vines, head of the Africa Program at U.K.-based Chatham House, said the gas reserves will likely make the province “much more important for the GDP of Mozambique.” 

Yet the natural wealth contrasts with the region’s large-scale poverty. That contrast has allowed the ASWJ to build on what Vines called a “hearts and minds campaign,” where it poses as the remedy to the locals’ grievances of poverty and government discrimination. 

During the brief capture of Mocímboa, ASWJ distributed food and money to the people. In a video that emerged afterward, one militant speaking in the local Kimwani language criticized the government’s individualistic and corrupt nature, and reiterated its plan to set up Shariah law: “Look in the prisons, the poor people wail; have you ever seen a chief arrested?” 

The provincial capital of Pemba now resembles a war zone. Armed military officials patrol the streets, and the whirring sounds of helicopters fill the airspace. 

Some say the military has lashed out at the wrong targets in response to the insurgency. In 2018, Human Rights Watch documented stories from 12 witnesses and victims of abuse who said military officials arbitrarily detained, tortured, and executed dozens of people they suspected of involvement with the terrorist group. 

One year later, the advocacy group documented several cases where military officials unlawfully detained local and international reporters for as long as 13 days and seized their memory cards. 

In an additional desperate attempt to quell the unrest last September, Mozambique welcomed a team from Wagner Group, a private military company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin—a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. South African private military company Dyck Advisory Group has also provided aerial support to the government’s counteroffensive operation.

On April 28, Mozambique’s Interior Ministry reported security forces killed at least 129 insurgents that month across the province. About two weeks later, officials reported the death of another 50 insurgents. 

Vines acknowledged the heavy-handed military response succeeded in pushing back the insurgency in some locations but argued it will likely not be sufficient. He calls for development in the poorer provinces, in addition to improved intelligence and security.

In the meantime, Pemba has continued to feel the humanitarian impact of the worsening conflict. At the beach in nearby Paquitequete, boats of fleeing residents continue to dock at what now serves as a makeshift harbor. Many arrivals set up camp along the beach’s sandy shore, transforming it into an informal refugee settlement.  

“We have people coming to us day and night saying they’re from the north and they’re hungry,” Vilela said. 

Nonprofits working in the province confirmed people are hosting fleeing families and friends in their homes, some with as many as 20 people.

Vilela said the new system in Pemba now requires arriving refugees to present themselves to the local chiefs and add their names to a list to coordinate the aid process.

Iris Global is one of several groups assisting the population amid the coronavirus pandemic that further complicates intervention. The mission has set up hand-washing stations, educated people on sanitation measures, and also invited local security officials to coordinate crowds during aid distributions. 

The insurgents speak the local Kimwani and Swahili languages, building fear even in Pemba that the terrorists are in their midst. 

Vilela said the community long implemented a system where they report any sightings of a stranger to the local chiefs, who verify the stranger’s identity.

One missionary told me his team has shut down operations in nine of the province’s 16 districts, where villagers have either abandoned their communities or the insurgents have blocked access. His team is working on a contingency relocation plan in case the unrest extends into Pemba. 

Vilela echoed similar concerns, saying her team is mindful of the possibility of an evacuation in the future. The attacks and growing security presence have already limited their physical reach.

For now, they continue to assist people seeking refuge and document the stories of survival. (The pastor’s family who arrived with only a supermarket bag of belongings now lives in a home built by Iris Global in Pemba.)

“It’s been suffering with and for the people,” she said. “I’m strengthened by their strength.”

Editor’s Note: WORLD has updated this story to correct the year Mozambique’s struggle for independence ended: 1974.